My house was built in 1918. It’s a very solidly constructed Chicago style bungalow, but over time things wear out. All of the rain we’ve been getting lately has caused a hole to form in my kitchen ceiling. The roofer is coming over to look at it tomorrow but over the phone he said it sounds like a problem with one of the vents, which would be considerably less expensive than a new roof. But on the bright side it provides fodder for a Cover Freak theme.

Joe Fournier “Goin’ Out West” (Tom Waits)
The title of this week’s post comes from this song. It’s just one line in the song, but this is the tune that started running through my head as soon as I saw the hole in the ceiling.

Acoustic Hits “Hole In The Sky” (Black Sabbath)
The original version of this song is one of the all time great headbanging songs. I played it countless times when I was in high school, cranking up the volume so I could feel the bass line whap me in the breastbone like a rubber mallet.

This version is another example of people trying to exploit the musical accomplishments of an artist by hiring a bunch of nameless hack studio musicians to record acoustic/bluegrass/classical versions of their hits. All the same this song isn’t bad for exploitative studio hackery. It’s slow enough that you can really appreciate what gibberish the lyrics are.

The Wood Brothers “Fixing A Hole” (The Beatles)
The covers of this song that don’t just ape the Beatles tend to be jazz arrangements for some reason. Most of the jazz covers are a bit too clever for their own good, featuring women doing terrible things to the cadence of the lyrics to make them fit a musical bed that could be any jazz song. This version’s still jazzy but doesn’t have all that over-singing going on.

Hole “Gold Dust Woman” (Fleetwood Mac)
I always liked how Courtney Love used to wear those short babydoll dresses and play her guitar with her foot propped up on her stage monitor. It was a nice bonus for the guys who managed to get into the first couple of rows. Sadly Hole doesn’t seem to be happening these days as Ms. Love is busy being Kurt Cobain’s Psycho Widow, which seems to be a full time job.

Tre Lux “Black Hole Sun” (Soundgarden)
I truly and deeply love the cover of this song that Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme did, but it did have the unintended consequence of spawning many less-inspired lounge covers of the same song. Tre Lux finds a new path by keeping the lounge vibe but doing it with synthesizers and electronic percussion.